Follow-up…the first week

Regular readers may recall that I recently mentioned new changes that were underway up here in my corner of the world…primarily that we were taking girl child out of full-time childcare and going the frugal route. Well this week was our first week with the new preschool which you may recall I talked about as well last week.

The verdict….well the preschool is definitely lacking. We haven’t encountered anymore strange racial tensions but compared to where girl child was the place is lacking. In fact my nickname for the head teacher is lump lump as her personality vaguely reminds me of a lump of oatmeal. On the other hand the assistant teacher is a wonderful young man who girl child knows from her previous center, in fact he is being mentored by girl child’s former preschool teacher who was also male and is quite amazing. Mr B her former teacher is an amazing guy who has a passion for kids and throws out all notions that men don’t make good early childhood educators. He even emailed the Spousal Unit the other day to see how girl child was doing in her new program.

Sadly though this morning the Spousal Unit and I overheard another parent talking to  lump lump the head teacher explaining that her child was scared of the assistant teacher because he is a man..talk about small mindedness. So we are still debating whether this program will be a long term fit, though the other bright spot is that the program offers swimming classes which girl child loves.

Enough though about the details of girl child’s schooling. In some ways this week was rough as I had the unexpected health scare plus deadlines and meetings so it was not an easy first week to be making the transition. Thankfully the Spousal Unit had a slow week with work and was able to pick up my slack and I must say I am rather proud of him at the moment and reminded that I married him not for his bank account but for his passion. He declared the other morning that he is going to design a home learning program for girl child since lump lump seems unqualified to come up with engaging work for girl child.

I want you to know that considering Spousal Unit had never shared my curiosity with homeschooling, this is a big step. Right now we are working on dividing up the work load though at the moment I seem to be in charge of outside classes such as girl child’s dance class and possible theatre classes. Speaking of classes, some of the Mamas we encountered at dance class the other day were um…interesting. I have definitely decided I don’t fit into the Mama cliques that seem to exist where ever we go lately. In fact after sitting outside dance class  trying to make small talk with the Mamas, I almost want to pull out attire from my youth…Doc Martens, motorcycle leather jacket and a crazy punk outfit from the club days. I swear if I had enough hair, I’d show up next week with a mohawk just to freak out the establishment. I know…childish but hey sometimes you gotta shake things up.

No, the biggest thing that has come out of the change is that I have spent way less time online or attached to the Crackberry. Due to my job, I will always be connected to some degree but I am learning it’s actually nice to get away from the computer. Also the Spousal Unit and I have been spending more time together in ways that are actually meaningful; money was the prime reason for the changes but already I see additional benefits.

Now ask me in a couple weeks when the Spousal Unit is in a production cycle and I might feel otherwise. Though I will say with the new changes I am being more intentional about how I spend time online and I definitely enjoy blogging and reading other blogs which means I will be definitely spending less time Tweeting and Facebooking.

Anyway time to sign off, gotta go cuddle with a bearded man. Have a great weekend!